Fairview Heights man charged with sharing revenge porn

A Fairview Heights man was charged Friday with sharing nude photos of a 23-year-old woman, according to charging documents.

Christopher Jolliff, 28, allegedly disseminated an "identifiable image" of the woman, whose private parts were exposed without her consent, according to charging documents filed in St. Clair County. This act is also known as revenge porn.

The charge, nonconsensual dissemination of a private sexual image, is a Class 4 felony and can carry a sentence of one to three years in prison. Jolliff was arrested Friday and posted bond. He was no longer in custody at the St. Clair County Jail as of Tuesday.

Illinois' law against revenge porn is relatively new. It was signed into law in December 2014, and went into effect in June 2015, according to a Huffington Post article from just after the law was passed. All but 12 states now have a law against revenge porn.

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“We believe (revenge porn) is a form of sexual assault,” Illinois state Rep. Scott Drury, D-Highwood, one of the bill’s co-sponsors, told The Huffington Post in 2014. “The harm to the victim and the way they react to it is very similar: They’re not comfortable going out in public anymore; they fear being assaulted; they could be stalked. You could be someone working at Burger King, and now you’re a sex object.”